New Delhi: The Central Information Commission has slapped a maximum penalty of Rs 25,000 on an executive engineer of Municipal Corporation of Delhi for delay in providing information about a construction work.

The case relates to Dheeraj Sehgal who sought to know details of a construction in the Dwarka area here. But his queries were not responded to by Executive Engineer Buildings, MCD, SR Lakhan even after Commission`s order.

"The Public Information Officer/Executive Engineer has further refused to obey the orders of the First Appellate Authority (FAA), which raises a reasonable doubt that the denial of information may also be malafide," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi observed.

Gandhi said the officer is "guilty of not furnishing information within the time specified" as per the requirement of the RTI Act, despite a reminder from the seniors, and also ordered the civic body to provide information by October 20.

"It is apparent that SR Lakhan, deemed PIO and EE(B) has consistently refused to provide information inspite of the
order of the FAA as well as the order of the Commission. He
has refused to come and give any explanation for not providing
the information. Thus it appears that though he was given an
opportunity to explain his conduct he has chosen no to offer
any explanation," Gandhi said.

"The Commission finds this a fit case for levying penalty on S R Lakhan, EE(B) and Deemed PIO. Since the delay in providing the correct information has been over 100 days, the Commission is passing an order penalizing Mr S R Lakhan Rs 25000/ which is the maximum penalty under the Act," he said.